Did anyone say “Borat”? (part II)

What about the reaction of Kazakhs to the scandalous comedy? Well, as we have many patriots, almost everyone was furious to be called a citizen of a country full of prostitutes, ugly, poor and uncivilized. However, minority did not care and, on the contrary, thought it is a good advertisement for our country. So did our first and for now last President, Nursultan Nazarbayev, think. He visited London for a press conference with Tony Blair and while making his speech he publicly thanked Cohen for а worldwide promotion and added: “If people want to know the truth about Kazakhstan, they should come and see it!” And many people did so. According to statistics, the number of visas issued to visit our country grew by 10 times. Even special “Borat-tours” were organized by travel agencies based in USA. Thus, the scandalous film affected our tourism and increased the recognition across the world.

Unsurprisingly, “Borat” was taken out from cinemas in Kazakhstan as well as in Russia, because it did not want to aggravate our friendly relationship. However, in 2016 Cohen was invited to Moscow for his new film premiere and a press conference. But a few hours prior to his departure to Russia, he cancelled everything and acknowledged that he is not coming at all. The reason was unknown for a while. But later event organizers announced the grounds. It turned out that approximately 10 Kazakh men, who already had invitations for the press conference, were planning to beat him unmercifully. However, the local office representatives heard about that and warned Cohen about threat, so that he refused to visit Moscow.

To conclude, I would like to say that although my attitude was negative towards this film at the beginning, it has changed to positive since it served as a good start for Kazakhstan’s recognition. Even though not from the good side…